The Start of a Trek
by scurls8
Summary: If you've ever wanted to jump into the 2009 world of Star Trek, this is your chance! Read as yourself (a fifteen-year-old girl) as you meet the crew of the Enterprise and begin an adventure of your own at Starfleet Academy.
1. Chapter 1

_I can't believe this._ Jim Kirk was standing on the side of the road. It looked like he got a new motorcycle, except it wouldn't start up. He eventually gave up on it as I stopped next to him.

"Hey, Jim Kirk?"

"Yeah… have we met or something?"

"Eh, no, not really. Long story. Looks like you need a lift, though," I tried to cover for mysteriously knowing who he was.

"Yep. Just got this damn thing, too. I called Scotty on my communicator to take a look at it, but I can't figure out what's wrong," he grumbled.

"Well, I can drive for now. Where are you going, anyway?"

"Starfleet Academy." I felt a little dumb now, since he was dressed in uniform, all grey, with a matching hat hanging from one of the motorcycle's handlebars. "You probably don't know where that is..." He was trying to sound smart as he sat in the passenger seat. I was about to surprise him.

"Oh, son, I could get you there with my eyes closed," I smiled as I hit the gas. His suspicious glance over at me was priceless.

•••

"This should be your building," I said casually to Jim as I pulled up.

"How do you know where my classes are?" He was growing more suspicious now.

"Oh, I'm just a Starfleet hopeful, but I know my way around. I'm going to pass my entrance exams the first chance I get. I turned fifteen this week, ya know," I added. I could tell by the expression on his face that he was thinking about Chekov, wondering if I could also pass at such a young age.

"Well, good luck. Maybe one day I'll see you on the Enterprise,"

"Yeah, kick some butt until I get there!"

He smiled as he headed towards the Academy. Turning back to wave at me, he didn't see that Scotty had fixed the motorcycle and was now riding it back to the Academy. He didn't seem like he had much experience in that area.

I could see it all happening. Scotty swerved out of the way of a few students, but he was wobbling and didn't have much control over the motorcycle. As he glanced down for a split second—

"Jim, watch out!" I yelled. Too late. I ran towards him. He was sitting on the ground with one arm wrapped around himself and one holding him up. It wasn't a head-on collision, but it wasn't good, either. He was holding a bright red slash across his uniform, and one of his legs had a burn from the engine. I squatted next to him. Someone had helped Scotty with the motorcycle, and he was now running towards us.

"Ah, damn it," Jim mumbled as he tried to get up and was forced back down by the pain.

"Just stay here for a minute, Jim. I'll get Bones." I looked around, searching… there! Getting up and starting at a run, I headed straight to Doctor McCoy.

•••

"Is it bad?" I asked Bones as he treated the scrapes.

"Not too deep, but just deep enough for him to lose quite a bit of blood," he explained as he looked through a couple shelves, grabbing various medical supplies.

"Jim, I—" Scotty started to apologize.

"Scotty," Jim interrupted, turning to look at him. "Don't worry about it, okay?"

Scotty smiled in relief. "Aye. Well then, who's this lassie? You're not in Starfleet, are ya?"

"Nope, just visiting." Bones looked up from his patient, giving me a sarcastic look. "Okay, I guess I'm technically not supposed to be here, especially not in medical…"

He laughed a little. "You're fine, kid."

"So how long will he need to recover?"

"Oh, two, three days at the most. I've seen him recover from worse," he said, more to Jim than to me. I knew what he was referring to, but I tried not to let it show.

Bones suddenly looked like he had remembered something. "Damn it, Jim, you're supposed to be teaching tomorrow."

"Teaching?!" I would have never expected Jim Kirk to be teaching a class at the Academy.

"Yeah, he's supposed to be preparing them for the Kobayashi Maru, since he did 'win,' but right now—"

"I'm fine, Bones!" Jim cut in, "Look, I'm better now 'cause you're such a great doctor," he pointed to his healing wounds, trying to convince McCoy to let him go.

"Jim, you need rest. And you won't be going to the bar tonight, doctor's orders."

"What?" Jim protested.

"Oh, don't be such an infant. I'm still researching some of these treatments. Drinking anything funny could set off a chemical reaction inside you, and I don't feel like going into surgery at 2:00 tomorrow morning!"

"Chemical reaction? Cool," he thought out loud. Bones sighed in exasperation.

I sat in the chair at McCoy's desk. He had obviously been working on an experiment with tribbles. There were several strange-looking liquids sitting around, and one of the tribbles was half purple. I wanted to hold them, but that would most likely interfere with the data being picked up by the computer.

I'm not exactly sure how long I stayed there. Scotty left after a while, and I watched Bones work on his tribble experiment. I tried to help out with anything I could. Somewhere along the way, we accidentally turned another tribble half yellow.

•••

Slowly, it became dark outside. Fewer students passed by on the way to their next classes. As McCoy cleaned up for the day, we both realized I didn't have a place to sleep. After a moment, Jim came to the same conclusion.

"Hey, Bones, why don't you call Uhura? She has an extra bed since she only has one roommate."

"How do you know that? Wait, don't answer," Bones said as he picked up his personal communicator off the desk.

•••

"Come on in," Uhura didn't seem to mind the late-night call. "I just came back from the long-range sensor lab… always an interesting night in there." I thought of that night when she picked up an emergency Klingon transmission.

"Hey, Uhura. Who's this?" Gaila asked as we walked in.

"She's not in Starfleet, but I said she could stay in our extra bed."

Gaila was in her pajamas. She smiled at me. "Okay, cool."

"Hey," I said as I glanced around the room. It was a little messy, but functional.

Through the window, I could see what was usually the busiest part of the Academy, but now it was calm. Some of the lights on the buildings had been turned off for a group of astronomy students working on an assignment.

Eventually, we each got in bed, and I realized how tired I was from helping Doctor McCoy all day. As I drifted off into dreams, I imagined I would wake up the next morning and put on my own Starfleet uniform…


	2. Chapter 2

I heard an alarm buzzing. Opening my eyes, I saw sunlight shining through the window. Since Uhura typically stayed up late in the long-range sensor lab, her morning classes started a little later in the day. Gaila was already gone.

After a few minutes, Uhura and I left the dorm together. I felt a little out of place among all the red uniforms.

"If you want, I can get permission for you to come to my Xenolinguistics class," Uhura offered as we walked past one of the tallest buildings.

"Sure, if you think I won't bother anyone,"

She smiled as if she already had a plan. I decided to follow along with whatever she had in mind.

•••

We entered a large classroom. Rows and rows of students in scarlet uniforms were finding their seats. I looked all around the room, taking it in. My eyes suddenly found the odd man out — the grey uniform standing at the front of the classroom. I knew his hat was covering two pointed ears.

"That's right, Spock teaches this class!" I whispered to myself.

As I followed Uhura through the crowd, I realized we were going to talk to Spock.

"Lieutenant Uhura," he greeted her as we walked up to him.

"Commander Spock," Uhura replied, putting on her business face. She was going to make sure I stayed in that classroom, simply because she liked beating Spock in an argument.

"I do not believe we have met," he said, turning to me.

"Oh, I'm not a student here, sir. I was just… um…" I wasn't really sure what I was doing, so I glanced over at Uhura.

"She's going to stay in class with me today," Uhura covered for me. Spock gave her a slightly suspicious look. Now seeing her determination, he sighed a little.

"Uhura, do I need to remind you that allowing her to stay in this classroom violates Regulation number—" She raised her eyebrows at him, making him stop in the middle of his sentence. "...unless approved by a Commander," Spock admitted, knowing he had just lost.

"Thank you," she said sweetly, heading back towards the seats.

"He still likes you," I quietly told her.

"Yeah, that always helps," she smiled. A girl, obviously one of Uhura's friends, heard us talking and motioned for us to sit next to her. We sat down just as Spock began speaking.

•••

The class lasted for a couple hours, and Spock clearly liked Uhura the most, despite his efforts to ignore his human emotions. He would always compliment Uhura on things like her Klingon sentence translations or Romulan grammar.

Eventually, it came to an end. Just as we were starting to leave, all the lights flickered. Everyone looked around, confused. It happened again. Suddenly, red lights on the walls started flashing, and a familiar sound blasted all through the Academy — we were on red alert.

Spock and Uhura made eye contact across the room, and they both rushed through the crowd to the door. I followed Uhura, trying to match her speed. Spock was already outside when we reached the door. We followed him into a building I had not noticed before. It seemed like some kind of high-security medical area.

I could hear a man yelling about something in a back room as we caught up with Spock and ran through a trail of open doors. From the controls on the walls, I assumed that none of them were supposed to be left open.

As we came around a corner, I noticed that the man was no longer yelling.

Spock motioned for us to stop as a white mist slowly filled the hallway. I glanced around the next corner. The door to one of the rooms snapped closed, but the mist was creeping out from under it. Spock walked slowly towards it as I waited with Uhura.

With his back against the wall next to the door, he felt for his phaser by habit. He glanced down at where it would be, now rethinking his plan.

"Spock," Uhura whispered, holding a small phaser. She tossed it to him. As he set it to stun, I turned to Uhura.

"You always carry a phaser with you?" I whispered to her.

"Only when I think I'll need it," she whispered back, smiling at me mischievously. I laughed softly, trying to be quiet.

Spock was now cautiously walking through the door. I watched as the doors shut again behind him.

There were a few seconds of silence. Uhura and I were tense, waiting to hear or see anything. Out of nowhere, Uhura jumped, surprising me.

"Hey— whoa, take it easy," I heard a voice saying. Of course, Jim Kirk always found the action.

"Spock's in there, but I can't tell what's going on," Uhura explained. As if on queue, we heard Spock yell. Jim flinched, obviously fighting the urge to just run in there. When Spock didn't come back out, the three of us moved slowly down the hall towards the room. When we stopped next to the door, I walked over to the control pad. This area was obviously restricted and under high security, yet the entire system was down. A word was flashing on the pad: DEFROSTING.

"It says it's defrosting… so this room was a huge freezer or something?" I thought out loud. "What would you need to freeze that— oh. Oh, no." Glancing back at Jim and Uhura, I suddenly got a feeling that this was worse than we thought. They realized the same thing.

"We need to get out of here," Uhura whispered. Just as she said that, I heard the doors slide open behind me.

"Hello again, Kirk."

"Khan," Jim's face, full of rage and hatred, stared past me.

I had no idea what to do. Without warning, phaser fire came from inside the freezer room. I could tell by the angle it was fired from that Spock was on the ground, injured.

Khan yelled, and I spun around to face him. His cold, tall figure now became fierce. Without warning, his fingers started to press into my head. I saw Jim run towards him. Then I faded into blackness.


	3. Chapter 3

My eyes opened and adjusted to the bright white lights in medical. I saw Doctor McCoy pull a hypo away from my neck. Jim was standing a few feet back, holding his injury from earlier. There was a deep purple circle around one of his eyes. I wondered what had happened with Khan.

"She should be fine," Bones was saying as he walked over to check on Spock. "Luckily, her skull wasn't fractured in as many places as Spock's. His also reopened a spot I patched up from last time. That's the one I'm worried about. He lost some blood too…" Bones muttered under his breath, "green-blooded Vulcan."

When I tried to sit up, my head started spinning and my vision was blurry. McCoy seemed to notice and walked back over to me. "How are you feeling?" he asked as he scanned me.

"Well, I'm mostly fine, but I can't see straight. How long will this last?"

"An hour at the most. I'm still trying to work on speeding up the recovery process, but it's hard to ask a tribble how it's doing," he joked.

"Wait, are you saying you used Khan's blood?"

"Yep, and that stuff works wonders. It would have taken me days in and out of surgery to repair your skull damage, but his cells regenerated the bone from the inside."

As Bones sat at his desk to take some notes, I looked over at Jim. He knew what I was asking.

"Yeah, Khan got away… I let him get away," he wouldn't make eye contact with me. I knew that look — the look he got when he lost a crew member.

I slowly got up, sliding off the bed. Bones began to say I shouldn't be moving around, but he decided against it. I walked over to Jim, who was now watching McCoy check Spock's vitals.

"It's not your fault. Nobody knew Khan was awake. Something went wrong with the system, and Spock was just doing—"

"Spock will be fine. It's not him that… that's…"

I was confused for a moment. I glanced over at Bones, but he was silent.

All at once, it came back: the yelling I had heard from the freezer room replayed in my mind.

"Who…?" I was scared to ask.

"Chekov got there before Spock did," Jim blurted out.

"No," I sat down on my bed. "Oh, no." He was just a few years older than me. Just checking on a system failure… My head started hurting again.

"You should get some rest," McCoy offered. I nodded, feeling the effects of my injury more now.

I sat there for a little while longer. Bones would occasionally walk over and give me a hypo to help with the pain for a few minutes.

•••

Eventually, Bones said I was cleared to leave. I walked out with Jim, leaving Spock in McCoy's care. "I've been called to a meeting about all this, so I gotta go," Jim told me.

"Okay, I'll find something to do. See you later," I said as he walked the other direction. I tried to look like I knew where I was going. After a few minutes, I found myself outside a hand-to-hand combat training room.

"This sounds interesting," I smiled to myself. The doors opened and I could hear voices from inside.

"Nice, you're getting better!" It was Sulu, helping a cadet practice his fencing. I walked in and watched, careful to not interrupt them.

Suddenly, Sulu's communicator beeped. They stopped as he looked at the message.

"They need me at a meeting," he seemed confused. "Sorry, I gotta go."

As the cadet started to put away their equipment, Jim rushed in the doors.

"Hey, I'm actually supposed to bring you with me," Jim said as we made eye contact, but I knew this couldn't be right. I wasn't even in Starfleet.

"Me?" I asked, unbelieving.

"Yeah, it's urgent and you're a witness. Come on,"

I wasn't going to argue with that, so I hurried out the door to follow him. Sulu walked behind me, coming to the same meeting.

The three of us were met by the bridge crew of the Enterprise as we entered a large meeting room. We all sat down at a long table.

An admiral was sitting at the head of the table, waiting for everyone to arrive. As the last few crew members sat down, he pulled up a picture of the storage room Khan had escaped from earlier. The seventy-two cryo tubes were lined up, just as they should be, yet something seemed different.

"As you know, the criminal Khan and his crew have been kept in cryogenic tubes in this room for the past five months. But, he is once again awake, and he has escaped with his seventy-two crew members."

I looked at the picture more closely now, and I noticed none of the tubes had faces inside them.

"It has been confirmed that the cryogenic tubes' preset sequences were not cancelled, so the process began to wake up the crew according to their original plan." I could read the frustration on some of the engineering crew's faces. None of them had thought to check if the cryo tubes were on a timer from 300 years ago.

"Khan and his crew proceeded to attack several men and women at the Academy and take over eighteen shuttle crafts. We assume four of these genetically engineered humans are in each shuttle. Now, another problem arises as the Enterprise is still being reconstructed. She is not ready for this mission, but we want the crew of the Enterprise to track those people down since you have experience dealing with Khan. Therefore, the entire crew of the Enterprise has been temporarily transferred to the U.S.S. Reception."

Spock and Jim made eye contact across the table. Jim seemed glad to be captain of a ship again.

"Your mission is to reconfiscate, not destroy, those shuttle crafts and the men and women inside them. There has already been one casualty, and we don't want any more. Good luck, and be prepared to leave at 08:00 tomorrow. Dismissed."

The admiral motioned for Jim and I to stay seated. The rest of the crew started to leave, anxious about the mission.

"You are not a student at the Academy, correct?" the admiral looked straight into my eyes.

"No, I'm not, sir."

He thought for a second. "I want you on this mission. You are one of the few people who has seen Khan since he woke up with his crew. You will need a uniform… Jim, you can help with that. At this point, I don't think it matters which color. You will take this privilege seriously, correct?"

"Yes, definitely, sir," I answered quickly, "and thank you so much. This means a lot to me."

The admiral nodded in approval. "Good luck to both of you."


End file.
